Why Some People Say SHTRONG (the CHRUTH)

[@bad_bau]

I saw the thumbnail and immediately thought, "damn, that's such a weird way to pronounce those words," only to realize that I myself pronounce them that way

[@paddington1670]

@@topherthe11th23 "Datsh very shtrange, to shink shat anyone would shay it like shat" god damn close to Shhhhean Connery

[@SuperRobertoClemente]

My favorite of this is Christopher Walken in "King of New York": "you guys got fat while everybody SHTAWWVED on tha street!" lol

[@-cloudfall-]

Truth. Or...chruth!!

[@greyblob1101]

I feel like I'm getting called out when I watch any of his videos

[@ferretyluv]

Same. I’m trying to consciously fix it because I teach kids so I want them to pronounce it correctly.

[@SciShow]

That was a bit jarring to suddenly see myself! Happy to be a pioneering Street Shopper! This is especially weird because my mom (from the American South) says "srimp" instead of "shrimp."

[@DrGeoffLindsey]

I'm not worthy! 🙏🙏🙏 I should have mentioned "srimp". Charles Dickens: Capital srimps!' said Mr. Joseph Tuggs. Mr. Cymon eyed his father with a rebellious scowl, as he emphatically said 'SHRIMPS.' 'Well, then, shrimps,' said Mr. Joseph Tuggs. 'Srimps or shrimps, don't much matter.' There was pity, blended with malignity, in Mr. Cymon's eye, as he replied, 'Don't matter, father! What would Captain Waters say, if he heard such vulgarity?' (Sketches by Boz)

[@SchmulKrieger]

Sounds like a hypercorrection on the shrimp thing.

[@EC2019]

Aaaaaaahhhhh so THAT'S why Dr Phil says he hates sounding like a "srink"! This answers my comment of about 24h ago. Never expected to get the answer direct from Hank Green 🤣

[@trentgraham465]

I went to the comments specifically to look if Hank commented!

[@zitools]

@@trentgraham465 yeah i'm a little dissapointed its not from chrash course. no, just kidding....crash course is infinitely better than scishow.

[@van-hieuvo8208]

As a non-native speaker, your videos have confirmed so many of my suspicions about English phonetics that I haven't read anywhere even though I can still hear them. Super informative, sir!

[@jamesmcinnis208]

His videos are not "a non-native speaker." I assume you are.

[@joelRmontfort]

@@jamesmcinnis208 can you read?

[@softy8088]

​@@joelRmontfort ​ @James McInnis is making a grammar observation. The structure of "As an X, Y is..." implies that Y is an X. Obviously that's not what OP meant, the intended meaning is clear, and this mistake (if you can even call it a mistake) is extremely common. But James is pointing out that taken literally, OP's comment is saying that the video itself is a non-native speaker.

[@antlermagick]

@@softy8088 Yep, it's very pedantic as the meaning was clear, but he's technically right.

[@TerezatheTeacher]

Ah, the eternal conundrum: Speak/Write exactly like natives and have natives insult you for making native-like mistakes, or speak according to all the rules of "correct" English and sound unnatural and stuck-up? To be or not to be... exactly like an average modern native speaker? And should we strive for average, or is the goal to be so good that you're expressing yourself more "correctly" than the average Joe? Will the average Joe hate your stupid snobbish face when you correct his grammar mistakes?

[@Ardub23]

My younger sibling once wrote "filchreip", which I found interesting-it demonstrates not only the 'chr' phenomenon, but also the fact that young children hear the phrase 'field trip' in contexts that don't make clear the constituent words, to the point of perceiving it as monolithic, a single word.

[@fritzp9916]

English is unique among Germanic languages for spelling noun clusters like "field trip" with spaces between the constituent nouns. In languages such as German, Dutch, or Scandinavian languages, the same kind of construction exists, but no spaces are added, so it would be something like"fieldtrip".

[@aiocafea]

@@fritzp9916two months late but minor note, what adds to the situation is the fact that english spelling is highly irregular and if you don't know the word, you'll have to know a bit about its origin to get a grip on how it might possibly be spelt so maybe in german you could in theory hear Schulfahrt and not know that it's composed of schul and fahrt, you could still write it by hearing the term the first time

[@LostLargeCats]

I have got really into etymology recently because of this. They're are so many words that I keep realizing "oh that's what they mean, they aren't just a stand alone idea/sound." As an example, I just learned that a "second" is called a second, because it's the second (2nd) 1/60 division of an hour. A minute is the first 1/60 division. There used to be a "third" that was one 60th of a second, but it's not really used anymore.

[@kathleenkeyes8340]

I’m a choir teacher and a lot of my students write “chreble clef” rather than “treble clef”. I’m glad I found your channel, I’m always ranting to my choirs about pronunciation 😂

[@DrGeoffLindsey]

Please ask them to take my survey!

[@seraphina985]

​@@DrGeoffLindsey I must be a weird one here as that seems to come out as t'r to me, same with t'r in train. The tongue hits the roof of my mouth just behind the teeth for both at the end of the t sound. That said my grandfather was in the forces as was my father and both travelled a lot with my mum in tow for much of it. Perhaps that is also why I have a weird tendency to go with the flow up to the point of picking up an accent in many ways when I travel. It's like I somehow swallowed more of the dictionary of sounds growing up although I still find pronouncing kn really tricky since moving to the Netherlands those two consonants do not flow in sequence for me. It often either feels like I am tripping over my tongue or a slight hint of an a or u vowel seems to insert itself as a transition.

[@BeckBeckGo]

I read an early draft of an academic paper containing a phrase that spelled everyone’s favourite cheese “swish cheese”. There is a reason you’re feeling frustrated. And that road on which your frustration drives leads to horrors like this. Oh, sorry, frushtration. Academia. NO excuses.

[@BeckBeckGo]

Also, my 7 year old epsilon has a lisp. It is adorable. It’s hard not to let it go so that I can enjoy the cuteness for awhile longer. It’s not a full lisp, seems to mostly occur at, or near, the ends of words. “Swith cheeth.” That sort of thing.

[@spartan.falbion2761]

Are they stupid? Not even my 9-year-old self would make that mistake.

[@juewang5557]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen content that explores the nitty gritty of English phonetics as throughly like this anywhere else on KZbin. It is massively insightful to nonnative speakers like me! Excellent work!

[@mirvids5036]

If you're learning English, don't copy this style of speaking.

[@horsfred]

@@mirvids5036 don't be ridiculous, the tr -> chr and dr -> jr change is perfectly natural and acceptable for all speakers of English. Here's Charles III saying "countries" as "countchries" in his first speech as king: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j2qohoOomcSigNk&ab_channel=NBCNews (skip to 1:00)

[@notwithouttext]

@@mirvids5036 yeah i guess it might be a bit too difficult

[@gaetano_kojj]

@@mirvids5036 Why? That's still native English. If I want to match my pronunciation to that of a native, why whould I change things like these?

[@TheDrumstickEmpire]

@@mirvids5036 and what you’d rather people spoke like confused robots?

[@SirCommoner]

As a Brazilian with an interest (inchrest) in linguistics who's been learning English all my life, I noticed your channel seems to be the first I've seen to point out these mannerisms of native speakers, especially in such a clear and well taught way! I've noticed when talking to Americans that some of them say "undershtand", and it piqued my interest

[@cheyenne3882]

I definitely say shtreet, but happy that I don’t say undershtand

[@shaunmckenzie5509]

Your Portuguese cousins also like turning S into SH too

[@SirCommoner]

@@shaunmckenzie5509 True, some Brazilian accents do it too (mine doesn't)

[@jhonbus]

Very Inch Resting!

[@DB-qq1qn]

Some people, including myself say," inchrist", where I'm from (rural Nevada) "inchrust" sounds a little off. Also, we never smash letters after the R. It's always before the R. If someone said," Undershtand". I would assume they were eating and talking at the same time or that they have a speech impediment. I'm speaking from an American English perspective though. Maybe there are other accents out there that may smash letters after the R?

[@ananyaravikumar5069]

I grew up in India, but I speak English 90% of the time so it’s practically my first language. Interestingly I think most Indians _don’t_ replace the sr/dr/tr sounds - and that’s why our accent sounds more ‘heavy’ in some ways

[@emilysmith2965]

That’s extremely cool!

[@EresirThe1st]

Interesting. As an Australian native speaker I find Indian accents to be the second hardest to understand, only behind Chinese. Despite the presence of English in India. I think your explanation why makes a lot of sense.

[@LeftFalangie]

I think it's because our Ts, Ds and Rs aren't alveolar or post-alveolar, they're all retroflex

[@jmodified]

The Indians I knew in grad school seemed to be split about 50/50 on sr vs shr (to my American-English speaking ears). Is it regional?

[@druhanshah7403]

Like @LeftFalangle mentioned, it is mostly because of the post-alveloar to retroflex t/d, but I think it's also because of a trilled or tapped alveolar r, which allows for a "harder" tr, so to speak. If it was a retroflex t/d but approximant r, I believe the result would still be a fronted affricate like in the video.

[@darthszarych5588]

I'm a native english speaker from New Jersey and i wasnt aware of this until singing in my highschool choir. My choir director had to instruct us how to sing the word "street" which nearly all of us pronounced like "shtreet" and none of us were aware that we did this. You learn a lot about phonetics from singing in a choir because the director has to decide on a standardized pronunciation for all the words so that when the singers sing, their voices will blend. I've even met singers who use IPA to write in the pronunciations of words. This is more common in choirs where they sing songs in many different languages. Singers are the only people I've met besides linguists who have use for the IPA.

[@dozrFAB]

So true! I sang all through high school and college and it was my only exposure as an American to IPA. Interestingly, words like “street” or “drum” can be sung in different ways depending on intended feel. Singing “s-treet” could employ a flipped r, but could also have a quick clean s into the American R. If you used “shtreet” you’d get way too much consonant and would lose clarity across an ensemble. Interestingly, a less sophisticated choir might still have people unknowingly using “shtreet” for lack of hearing/feeling the difference. By contrast, “Jrums” makes a lot more sense, as to use the American R you sort of have to voice the D first or combine them into “Jrum”. An American r “d-rum” has a lot of bounce to it, while “jrum” fees like it is a bit more mellow and can fit in a phrase more smoothly. Then you could also do a flipped r “d-rum” for that more classical choral sound. Really fascinating topic

[@dozrFAB]

Further, snare is more like how street’s s is supposed to be pronounced, as a funny connection to drum

[@madelinebell5046]

I use IPA all the time as a speech pathologist, to record exactly how clients have pronounced words during both assessments and therapy. It’s very useful, can’t do the job without it.

[@Skank_and_Gutterboy]

I like the people who say "aks" and "wif" instead of "ask" and "with", what's the story there? Also, if you can't use plurals properly you talk like Tonto. It's kind of appalling how many people have that problem.

[@carr0760]

Classically trained singers are actually taught to use IPA as part of our education. When I was in university, I had to write out the IPA for every song I did. We took an entire IPA course. It was actually quite helpful because we were required to sing in so many different languages. You might look at an Italian word, for example, and be unsure how to pronounce it, but once you saw the IPA there was no longer a question.

[@wrenmiller3461]

I have an auditory processing disorder that makes it quite hard to keep up with conversations and I when I was younger I purposefully taught myself to do all of these things as a way to mask the disorder. I didn’t know there was a language to describe it but I figured out on my own that if I simplified the pronunciation of certain words I could say them faster and create the illusion that I was speaking at a similar speed and cadence to someone who was more neurotypical. I knew people would listen to me more and infantilize me less if they didn’t know that I had a mental disability. So I paid very close attention to how people around me were taking and figured out every single shortcut I could find in my local accent (American Midwest), then I figured out ways to lean into it so that people would just think I have a bit of a “country” accent rather than a mental disability.

[@gwenrees7594]

That's really interesting, thanks for sharing. Hopefully one day neurodivergent and disabled people won't have to worry about being judged anymore.

[@a.nefertiti6980]

That's quite amazing!

[@GALL0WSHUM0R]

@@frankdayton731 For example, I'm judging you having ignored the context of the comment you're replying to in order to make a pointless observation.

[@rosefulmadness]

I just realized I do this omg

[@NalleDara]

Rare homosapien W.

[@tired1923]

as a native french speaker, I find your videos particularly clear and accessible for us who didn’t grow up to intuitively know the many unwritten rules of english around the world. I appreciate that you give explanations that rely on examples while still including the phonetic sound marks and the kind of mouth movements. it’s also quite nice to find such content that doesn’t take a stance on what is right and what is wrong.

[@ExSpheriment]

wow ur really fluent! im currently learning french

[@tired1923]

@@ExSpheriment thank you! I’ve been learning English for most of my life so I’ve become pretty used to it. good luck learning French,, it was a real b*tch for me

[@Foxikaze]

​​@@tired1923 So true. My mother is from Québec so naturally, I had to learn French. Even after speaking the language for nearly 10 years and living in Québec for 6 years, I still struggle with it, especially gendered nouns. That rule fucks me up all the time

[@joeysabey6019]

Gotta love descriptivism in such matters, ennit. No such thing as a 'wrong' word or sound, if it is generally understood. Well... With the exception of some of the sounds of your native French, particularly some of those involving R's. They are categorically and objectively _wrong_. This is an opinion I must insist upon, as it presently seems more likely that I will persuade the rest of humanity of the point than that I will learn to correctly reproduce them...

[@MrScorpianwarrior]

I am a beginner/intermediate French learner. Is there a KZbin channel (or other resource) that you know of that is similar to what Dr Geoff Lindsey does but for the French language? That sounds incredibly interesting, but I wouldn't even know where to begin!

[@JivanPal]

A minor point about the word "sri": it is indeed actually sometimes written "shri" in English, and is solely written as श्री _(shrī = sh + r + ī)_ and pronounced /ʃɾiː/ in Hindi, and written identically and pronounced similarly as /ɕɾi/ in Marathi, as well as in Sanskrit, from which the word originates. The spelling "sri" in English is merely an odd transliteration artifact.

[@dmark1922]

From my very limited experience, it seems that in India's south, and Sri Lanka as well, the "sh" sound is not present except in Anglicized spelling (because certain letters in words from Sanskrit represent the Sanskrit letters "sh"). On the other hand, Bengali, at least the way I studied it, doesn't seem to pronounce the plain "s". Then, in Nepali, which uses Deva Negari script, 'sh' is always pronounced as s and j as z, and ch as ts in conversation (except if the person is trying to be formal). It is probably a matter of dialect. Just some observations.

[@JivanPal]

@@dmark1922 All very true. Also worth noting is that the North Indian (Brahmic) and South Indian (Dravidian) languages have very different ancestries/histories, and in general have very few words in common except where there has been more recent cross-pollination. Modern Bangla/Bengali indeed lacks plain /s/, but also lacks several other sounds, yet retains historical/traditional spellings that agree with Devanagari spellings of the same words. Modern Punjabi reintroduced "sh" as a borrowed sound, which traditional Punjabi lacks. As such, modern Punjabi speakers almost invariably say "shri", even when reading literally "sri" in traditional texts such as Gurbani. At the same time, native Eastern/Indian Punjabi (Charhda Punjabi) speakers struggle with the sound /z/ which appears in words of Persian origin, such as "mez" (meaning "desk/table"), and it is accordingly written in Gurmukhi as a "j" with diacritic, just like it is in Devanagari.

[@bletwort2920]

Sanskrit had three sibilants श ष स all of which collapsed into स. Modern Indian languages regained s vs sh contrast because of borrowings from Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit and English all of which distinguish s and sh. Some languages like Marathi have developed a native sh sound by palatalising s before i, e and y. Bengali too has sh in native words but no s.

[@Yabe_uke]

I've been arguing about this pronunciations for over 20 years. I'm not a native speaker and none of my teachers or even native speaker friends have pointed this out to me, or when I noticed and pointed it out they told me I'm hearing wrong or I was misunderstamding something. I'm so glad that after all this time an actual expert in english phonetics is siding with me. You sir made my day. Cheers from Barcelona.

[@keith6293]

Shrue Shtory! 😉

[@hereandnow3156]

I don't know why anyone would tell you you're hearing wrong. As a native speaker this is something that seemed pretty obvious. I used to jokingly write words like train as chrain. Sorry you had to deal with this strange linguistic gas lighting for so long😂

[@thespankmyfrank]

Agreed! Not a native speaker either but this has always frustrated me. Idk if I've ever spoken a lot with others about it but I always found it hard to explain. I love seeing an explanation of it.

[@lolpaladins]

This entire channel is excellent, as a native speaker these are the little things that I pick up on, sometimes even subconsciously, to identify someone as a non-native speaker.

[@nicholaslandry6367]

That sucks that you were treated that way

[@thunder_bug_1451]

I’m a native speaker and I have literally never noticed this but it definitely happens. I can’t even tell if I do this because now I’m so hyper focused on how I’m pronouncing these sounds!

[@Lemon_squee]

I keep saying strong over and over like a jackass trying to hear it 😂

[@chazdomingo475]

I'm native and I don't think I understand how to properly say train anymore.

[@kristinalapp388]

Try putting it in a sentence like you were talking to someone! It helps you to say it more naturally for you. May also help to record yourself saying that while thinking about something else to distract your brain.

[@lh3540]

take the quiz link. I just realized I say "baddery" instead of battery. Baddery acid.

[@rabbiezekielgoldberg2497]

How could you have never noticed before? It's very easy to hear.

[@sarahlashinsky]

I insisted to my mother circa age 4 that “dress” started with “j”. I grew up in the American South. So cool to see that this came from somewhere!

[@TomMS]

I had a very *magical* experience once where people in KZbin videos sounded weird like there was something in their mouths. Hearing you point this pronunciation makes me realize that I was just perceiving this accent more clearly. It sounds exactly the same!

[@moominfin]

I wish we could have a channel like this for all the world's languages

[@kindauncool]

SAME I think about this every time I see a video like this. Too bad English is the lingua franca..

[@Egilhelmson]

Trying to improve your Athabascan? Maybe your !kung ? Your Old Sumerian? Seriously, there are still almost 10,000 languages documented by SOMEBODY, even if they are wrong.

[@kindauncool]

+@@Egilhelmson hyperbole, ever heard of it?

[@enkor9591]

Yes, it's really hard to notice things like this in your own language

[@niluscvp]

I learned German and French in highschool besides my native tongue Dutch and honestly its less neccesary in all these languages. Phonetics are more linked to how its written down and how you break up words in syllables. Its really just a few a rules and oddities you have to learn and you're good at speaking out written sentences with words that you dont even know yet. Its just that the rules can be odd for non native speakers. Like words ending with -en in dutch is not how its written but an "un" or "uh" sound and how french people dont pronounce the "H" at the start of words and most consonants at the end are barely pronounced. But usually you can look stuff up on youtube about learning phonetics of other languages, there are lots of small non english channels dedicated to (usually aimed at teaching young kids) for learning pronunciation of wirtten words.

[@beebawing179]

I find stuff like this really interesting, especially since I used to have a lisp with SH, CH, and J sounds. I spent YEARS in speech therapy until one day someone just told me to try pretending CH is more like a T sound, rather than the rushing air through my molars that I was doing. That changed my whole world and suddenly I didn’t have that lisp anymore, simply because I now knew the proper mouth placement of the sound. To this day I still have what feels like a vested interest in phonetics.

[@viepng]

I would pronounce my r's like w's and so i have to over pronounciate the r sound. It moved over into the other phonemes so train used to be "twain" but now its "chrain"

[@violymhi]

Wow you just solved my lisp thank you

[@Kinobambino]

Glad you worked past it 🙏

[@gtc239]

Wait, what kind of lisp did you have? And how did you pronounce your Sh, ch, j sounds before you overcome the lisp?

[@beebawing179]

@@gtc239 I think the name for what I had was a "lateral lisp", if I'm not mistaken. I was never told what the name of it was when I had it, but a lateral lisp seems like the closest thing. I tried to make those sounds by just rushing air through my molars. It made those noises sound slushy and wet, rather than crisp like how they're supposed to sound.

[@nicholaseast3728]

Massive shout out to how non-judgemental you are with your analyses Doc. It's almost impossible to have conversations around language and pronunciation change without encountering bias (I include myself in this!). Wonderfully objective and informative - thanks!

[@typhoon2827]

You know that sometimes "bias" is just a stick used to beat you and that, often, that bias isn't bias at all? I'm sure you'll have had "speech, language, dialect change all the time" thrown at you by people who lack the ability to discuss anything, usually followed by "you racist!" It really is tiresome. There are even those who say that 'you're' and 'your' should now be interchangeable because "everyone knows what you mean anyway". It's a steady decline in standards which starts with little, apparently unimportant things like speech and dress but ends with the kind of social lunacy we're seeing these days.

[@mikethebike2456]

@@typhoon2827 🏍️ Alone you're not on this train of thought 🚂. The decay of language is a symptom of the decay of society. We're dumbing down and simplifying English for a new generation that doesn't want a difference between your and you're. Their and they're. To and too. Those who spell it how they say it and add a few apostrophes while they're at it.

[@ryanm7704]

@@typhoon2827 Fun fact: Singular "they" (and "them") has been in English longer than singular "you". But people who claim to want to keep English traditional only ever complain about the first.

[@typhoon2827]

@@ryanm7704 ooooh, sounds like copium to me, as fun a fact it might be. I'm guessing the Vikings used the non gender specific term "fisherthem" too. Am I right? 🙄

[@ryanm7704]

@@typhoon2827 Or that linguistics is often used by people who have no idea what they're talking about to attack and other people. I would be interested in hearing what you meant by "social lunacy".

[@DeannaCbionerd]

The most inchresting and thought provoking video I have seen in a very long time. Well done

[@AirKIng74]

The jr/chr thing is actually one of the first things that got me into linguistics as a hobby. Noticed while hanging out with friends as a teenager that I was saying "chrees" rather than "trees". No one else knew what I was talking about at the time but I started looking into what that might be. Funnily enough I never heard it being acknowledged before this video, I assumed it was just a weird quirk of my particular dialect of English.

[@gljames24]

Holy crap you're right! I never noticed that before?

[@jaredsheinberg]

I remember being a toddler and asking my parents why "tree" isn't spelled like "chree" instead. It really bothered me as a kid, but I guess I've let it go as I've aged 😂

[@PeterCamberwick]

It shouldn't be acknowledged, because it's deeply wrong. LOL

[@AirKIng74]

@@PeterCamberwick Oh? How so?

[@mudpawkendra]

I did this, too, with “drunk.” 😂

[@paules3437]

I have noticed Shtreet Shopping for years among my middle school students in New Jersey. I also participated in a two-day linguistics workshop at Princeton where the prof (who, as an aside, said he was the ONLY professor there who taught the history of the English language) insisted that the word "trough" was, phonetically speaking, no different from the word "Chroff." He said, "Now, 'chroff' isn't a word, but it certainly could be, and it fits that pattern." I took exception to this because I thought I could hear a difference between TR and CHR but this video has made me think more about it. Perhaps my argument wasn't as SHTRONG as I thought...

[@bluewales73]

Where I grew up (rural Wyoming), trough was pronounced "chroff" with a very clear and distinct "ch", but train, trip, and trot didn't get the "t" rounded out to a "ch". I sort of think trough is a little bit special.

[@paules3437]

@@bluewales73 Well, if you're in rural Wyoming, I'd think you would want your troughs to be "special"! : ). That's an interesting comment.

[@Kosmokraton]

@@bluewales73 When I lived one state north in Montana (about a decade ago), chrain, chrip, etc. were the common pronunciation. Interesting to hear it might be different just a bit further south.

[@schnoz2372]

I mean troff and chroff are phonetically different clearly there’s no disputing that

[@schnoz2372]

If you pronounce the letter t and then pronounce ch, your mouth is doing a different thing, it’s a different sound

[@anlztrk]

Wow! This channel is quickly becoming one of my favorites on KZbin, if not *the* favorite! Great video!

[@DrGeoffLindsey]

🙏🙏🙏

[@paulinas_thyme]

I know, right? I'm non-native and I have never heard that "shtreet shopping" sounds in native speakers, but now I do and I'm probably going to use them more myself to sound more natural. I think it is because in my native country, when learning English, there is a big push for grammar and writing, and not enough emphasis on speaking and pronunciation - which is a shame! I only wonder if I start speaking with my new tips learned from these videos, would I not sound fake? 😉

[@KristianKumpula]

You deliver the clearest, most precise and most enlightening videos on English linguistics I've come across on this platform

[@victoriamilly2796]

A really great example (as a native English speaker) is the word drawer. I remember growing up always trying to spell it with a j and being confused to learn it was a dr spelling because all I could hear and say was the j sound! I’m from the Philly area and it’s basically one syllable, phonetically almost like “joor”

[@friibird]

Scrolled looking for someone that brought this up, thanks. I might as well be saying 'jrawr XD', I have a hard time making that word sound like two syllables

[@Paul71H]

Where I'm from, the "dr" sound in "drawer" sounds like "dr" (not "jr"), but the "awer" is pronounced almost like one syllable with a long "o" vowel sound, so that it almost rhymes with door or four or pour.

[@andrewclarkehomeimprovement]

And the two words that get me, mirror and solder. Meer and sodder. How?

[@eqbrim]

@@andrewclarkehomeimprovement I was just getting into an argument with some friends about how to say mirror. I had no idea I was saying it as a single syllable, Meer. I am from Pittsburgh. In Fact I would love to see this guy do a video on the "Pittsburghese" and Philly accents.

[@andrewclarkehomeimprovement]

@@eqbrim please don't think I was being critical of you or anyone in particular. It's just an interesting linguistic oddity. Solder. You'd say older not odder, so why sodder and not solder? Mirror! Just can't get how this can be corrupted to 'meer'. Mi-raw. So easy! It has been said that we are two people's separated by the same language. I say vive la difference! Ah, that's not exactly English is it? D'oh!

[@NH_HN]

My daughter goes to a welsh medium school but she’s very good at writing in English. Her English is littered with welsh phonetics which I find really clever. In her letter to Santa, she told him she hadn’t been ‘nôty’ (naughty) this year. Vowels with roofs don’t exist in English but phonetically, that’s exactly how it’s pronounced.

[@melovekittie]

Not in American English it’s not

[@NH_HN]

@@melovekittie cool but my daughters first language is British English so your comment is irrelevant.

[@JayJonahJaymeson]

@@melovekittie Holy fuck you aren't the center of the fucking universe. It's also wrong in Greek. Is that revelant as well?

[@fraizie6815]

@@NH_HN cool but the circumflex isn't used in the English language, thus we must assume there isn't a standardised pronunciation for it, so your initial comment is irrelevant

[@notwithouttext]

@@fraizie6815 but almost everyone who knows what british english sounds like can see what "ô" is, and how it makes sense, so your comment is less relevant (but still relevant)

[@CyberiusT]

"Street Shopping" was extremely prevalent in my high school in South Australia over 30 years ago. Nice to see the phenomenon being recognised.

[@attaotigba]

Your videos are amazing. You uncover this fascinating world of language with near poetic elegance. I bought your book a while ago then came across your channel recently and was pleasantly surprised to find you were the author. Thank you for doing what you do - and for the degree of detail with which you do it. Truly grateful.

[@mylittledashie7419]

One thing that seems to be a little bit missing from this video is why words like "tune" also get changed to "chune" (in some accents anyway, including my own Scottish). The explanation for train changing given in this video is related to the R sound, but there isn't one in that word. Looking at other "tu" words, I think the difference was in which of the U sounds I was using. So words like tune, tuna, tuba, tuba, tutor, tulip, all start with "chu", but words like tuck, tummy, tuft, tusk, turn, all have proper "tu" sounds. But the vowel is different, for the former words it's pronounced like the word "ewe", while for the latter it's "uh". It also didn't show up in words like "tush" which has an "oo" sound. Not sure why the little "yuh" noise means I change to "chu" rather than "tu" but maybe that's an explanation for another day.

[@echidna8159]

I think it's basically the same thing: the "yu" sound is post-alveolar, like the English "r".

[@douglasbrandt4068]

Funny! I remember when I was a little boy confusing tune/chune and turn/churn!

[@Nerd-FacedHuman]

@@echidna8159 I pronounce those words "oo" rather than "yu", and there's never a ch, so this makes sense to me.

[@typhoonzebra]

U also changes Hs. Don't know the phonetic term for it but the H sound we make at the beginning of hue, human, hugh, huge is totally different to the one we make for hat, hit, hot, hate, hight. The tongue's further forward, and pulls sharply back before the vowel. But only with Us.

[@notwithouttext]

@@echidna8159 it's PALATAL, not post alveolar. but we don't fully do the PALATALIZATION so it ends up post alveolar.

[@Schnolle]

This is something I have wondered about over the last few decades (and yes, Hank Green is one of the first "offenders"). This is actually the first explanation that I have found that actually makes sense. Subscribed.

[@ericleonard4775]

Wonderful video! As something from Eastern Ontario, Canada, I find that most people pronounce 'str' as 'schr'. Strong becomes schrong, street becomes schreet, etc. The city of Toronto is shortened to something like "trono", which the 'tr' then becomes a 'chr'. The city of Chrono!

[@Kaiveran]

Chronno cross, not to be confused with Chrono Cross

[@floama5765]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I (16m, german) have wondered specifically about the "tr" situation for a while now and couldn't figure out why I was always pronouncing it wrong. Normally I'm pretty good with the english pronounciation, but pronouncing "tr" without a "ch" sound was impossible for me. I discussed this topic with my english teacher literally the last lesson and the people that overheard our conversation were really confused. Sadly my teacher didn't understand what I meant. Now I finally have proof that I'm not imagining this.

[@chriskaprys]

These videos are so helpful and informative for me. I grew up with adults who were quick to point out grammatical and pronunciation "errors," from whom I inherited 1) a love of languages, 2) a level of frustration and self-righteousness when encountering "incorrect" usage; a tedious and tiresome way to behave. Learning from you and Susie Dent and Erik Singer, I not only gain a better understanding of the mechanics of speech but also find myself naturally softening my inherited sense of judgement and impulse to correct some perceived error. I find myself more often being curious and simply enjoying the messiness of language, as well as the privilege of getting to live in the Information Age, where we can witness language evolving so rapidly within a single generation. Thank you for the grace and diplomacy you impart along with this entertaining education!

[@tigereyemusic]

I’m a native English speaker (from Scotland originally), and actually find it really hard to pronounce train as “chrain”, but I generally pronounce “r” at the front of the mouth.

[@stevencarr4002]

The Scottish 'r' can be very different from the English 'r'.

[@mju135]

Oh absolutely, Scottish "r" doesn't fit this pattern at all.

[@fugithegreat]

I love the Scottish r! I think the sound of a tapped or trilled r is so much more pleasant to hear than a post-alveolar r, and this coming from the speaker of the former.

[@alicemilne1444]

I'm from Scotland as well, I grew up with both a tapped "r" and a retroflex "r". I also speak German where "shtr" combinations are the norm. I can pronounce "chrain", but I find it requires extreme retraction and bunching of the tongue at the back while flattening the front and pressing the sides against the back molars. Definitely not possible with any kind of Scottish "r".

[@ninjabob2456]

@@alicemilne1444 For me, "chrain" with a tapped "r" comes out sounding scouse, but maybe I'm doing it wrong...

[@soIzec]

I'm sitting here as a German feeling wacked out by sht and such even tho we literally do that in German.

[@Yotanido]

This is actually something that always annoyed me about German spelling. We write Sport and Straße, but say Schport and Schtraße. Sure, English spelling takes the disconnect between written and spoken to a whole new level, but German is usually quite close and these few exception stick out all the more for it.

[@urinstein1864]

If anything I am still pretty in the blue as to why this happened in German. The obvious comparison here is "Straße" with "Shtreet". Hower in German, this happens ALWAYS at the beginning of a word if followed by ANY consonant: Schlaf, Schmerz, Schnee, Spiel, Stuhl, Schwefel. And then in the case of K, it just becomes SCH so "scribere" becomes "schreiben" and "scola" becomes "Schule". This last case I can get behind a bit more and you can see in Scandinavia as well, where "ski" is pronounced (more like) "shee" and not "skee". I suppose S and K are really far apart and SCH pretty much in the middle so it ended up there, but still that logic doesn't work for all the other consonants and this effect only being at the beginning of words.

[@hildegunstvonmythenmetz625]

@@Yotanido There are actually quite a lot of deviations in spoken German from written German. Endings like -er become something like -ah, -en often gets swallowed to -n or just nothing pretty much, there are spellings like ie, ei and vocal plus h, -ig can become -ich, etc etc

[@fritzp9916]

@@Yotanido Standard German pronunciation is essentially a compromise between northern and southern dialects. Traditionally, northern speakers do say ẞtraße, while southwestern speakers turn every st into schp. So Kischte, künschtlich, etc. In spelling it always remains st of course, for all speakers. In a way, it's unnecessary that we include the ch before other consonants as in Schwein, schlecht, etc., because sw, sl, etc. aren't used in German anyway. It's kind of like the sr-situation in English.

[@TerezatheTeacher]

I know how you feel. I'm a Czech learning German and the other day, I was really annoyed there weren't two different words for "blink" and "wink" in German. How can a language NOT HAVE that? Then I realised Czech doesn't have that, either. It's just English.

[@F_Karnstein]

As a native German speaker it never occured to me that the R was responsible for pronunciations like "shtrong", because on the surface we have a similar thing with "Stein" or "Spiel" being pronounced with SH. I always assumed it was simply something about the clusters, but of course in German the situation is very different in that apparently original Germanic S had come to be pronounced alveolo-palatally and later shifted to a post-alveolar position in these clusters but further to an alveolar position elsewhere.

[@bramblebop1904]

This covers the Stein but not the Spiel. P is an entirely different sound from S so why does it become a Schpiel?

[@F_Karnstein]

@bramblebop1904 Well, the reasons in German are completely different. Apparently in English the R plays a role, but in German it has other historical reasons that also cover "Spiel" and "schwimmen" (where it even made its way into spelling, in the middle ages it was "swimmen"). And I'm so used to the German change that I didn't even think about the reason for the English one.

[@bramblebop1904]

We have different languages, but we share the same anatomy, lol. Sh-t is easier to say than s-t, in any language. Very interesting topic...

[@F_Karnstein]

@@bramblebop1904 That might be true (though I don't believe there's anything anatomically easier about /št/ than /st/), but the point is that this isn't where the phenomenon came from in German, because German S was then NOT pronounced as it is today in both German and English, but more palatally. This palatal spirant became less palatal in some positions and more so in others and ended up coalescing with "sch" in some phonetic environments and with "s" in others.

[@faederSSF]

As a Canadian bilingual I was taking the test and noticed that in some words, like disastrous, the S sound is actually a diphthong of of sorts, starting with a true "s" and very quickly sliding to the "sh" to accomodate the TR cluster that follows. Fascinating stuff as always!

[@ranulfdoswell]

Interesting! I'm British and I would never combine s and t in disastrous. I'd pronounce it: DIS AS TER-US, so 4 syllables rather than how I guess you say it as 3.

[@EoThorne]

Guilty!

[@ifeeltiredsleepy]

@@ranulfdoswell You can hear both pronunciations in English Canadian dialects. Depending on the age of the person and region. Though a bizarre example in Canadian English is the Torontonian pronunciation of Toronto: choronna.

[@Inquisitribble]

I think I have something similar here in southwestern MN, but I can’t tell if the TR is turning into SH or CH for me.

[@RobBCactive]

I think with SSBE the -trous has a definite t but I think some famous Londoners would say chr or shr as they don't anunciate that part of the word. Prestige speech affects the definite t, as the speech optimisation is likely to be seen as more vulgar and mumbly.

[@tamigongora1653]

I'm a 32 year old non native speaker but have been speaking English my whole life. I spent my teens and early adult years in the US. I definitely say shtrong, chrain, etc. Prior to this video I had never noticed any of this bc to me was just natural. Awesome content.

[@alicekravets8584]

Was always wondering why English speakers seem to struggle so much with pronouncing Slavic place names and words. From my perspective, they couldn't be easier, but now it makes total sense. On a similar note, I realized that when we try to mimic an "American" accent for comedic purposes in my language, most people simply replace our "trill" r with post-alveolar r and it does the trick. Your videos open my eyes not only to how English works, but where the differences in languages come from, and it is super cool.

[@zaixai9441]

Could you give some examples of Slavic place names you find English people struggle to pronounce?

[@varana]

@@zaixai9441 One example from the video - Srebrenica has no sh. (That's of course a lot easier to do if your R is a trill, not the English R.) KH (as in Scottish loch, or German Bach) is another very common one. Many English speakers will use some form of K for that (like currently in the news, "Karkiv" or "Kerson") - misled by the writing of a consonant that doesn't really exist in English. Generally, Slavic consonant clusters are a thing many people (not just English-speaking) really struggle with. The stress being in different places in different languages (Czech: first syllable, Polish: second-to-last syllable, Russian: all over the place, you just have to know) doesn't help either.

[@adrianbeck209]

So my name is Adrian and I work as a nanny. Consistently, young kids have a very difficult time with my name because of all the soft consonants and that “dr” in the middle. The three year old I nanny now just calls me “AJ” and this video makes that make even more sense. Thank you sir, for your fastidious efforts.

[@nommh]

Thank you so much for this! In German this happened long ago with ST, which is invariably and correctly pronounced sht, we even to it with words starting with sp, but the r is different so words beginning with tr and dr are unaffected.

[@XTSonic]

Similar in my Limburgic Dutch dialect. S always becomes SH before another consonant. Seems a different mechanism than this one though, as it's got less to do with post alveolar harmonization rather than just a lazier pronunciation of any S(c) consonant cluster.

[@SappinYourSentries]

25 year old native English speaker here, born and raised in the eastern United States. I do none of the pronunciation changes in this video but definitely hear them around. Edit: I took the survey and found that I definitely do the t->ch thing with some words, notably when the sound is in the middle of a word. I do it for words like “retreat” but not for “train.”

[@AnkerPeet]

I was hoping you would do a video about this! My wife was a 1st grade teacher and almost all of her students would write tr words as chr like tree would become chree, and their dr words would become jr like drink would become jrink. I always found this so fascinating that almost all of them were doing this. I think linguists could learn a lot about how languages change by studying how children interpret what they hear. Another sound that was commonly spelled wrong was the th sound was sometimes written as f. Which as an American I always associated that sound more coming from British speakers and not Americans. Maybe you could do a video on the th sound vs the f sound, I think that could make for some interesting content.

[@Nilguiri]

Agreed!

[@indridcold8433]

As a non native English speaker, it may benefit me that I pronounce all the letters of a word, except for words that have letters omitted from their pronunciation, intentionally. It helps me with the spelling of English words tremendously. However, I am often told I sound very robotic when I speak English. In that manner, I guess it is a disadvantage.

[@TheAbandonedAccount7]

I honestly had no clue any of this was even a thing. I just thought I was pronouncing things correctly bc that's how I've heard everyone ever since the dawn of time pronouncing those same words. My mind is blown that you're supposed to say "tuh-rain" or something like that lol. It's almost like it changed on purpose to make more sense

[@ANGELSVEN]

It's not fascinating...its wrong. And it's tragic for those kids.

[@indridcold8433]

@@ANGELSVEN The decay of language is rampant in many languages. Some even brag that they can barely speak correctly. This is beyond willful ignorance. This is ignorance celebrated in order to fit into a social herd.

[@jobethdittrichtanakaes8239]

As a US 2nd grade teacher (7-8 year olds), I give a spelling assessment at the beginning of the year and invariably have a significant number of them write chrain and jreme (train & dream). They are certainly aware of their phonics! Extensive reading throughout the year seems to extinguish this tendency.

[@AlexaFaie]

Wouldn't they be reading way before the age of 7 or 8 though? Is it not usual for Americans to start to read at the beginning of school at age 4-5? Or before then? When I was little we were all given crayons and pencils the moment we could grip them, so I have handwriting from when I was 1 and a half years old. And I know I was reading by the age of 2 (just basic books like Where's My Teddy? and The Very Hungry Caterpillar). At 7 or 8 I was reading books like Redwall and Goosebumps, as were most of my classmates. By then spelling words like train and dream would be easy unless the individual had some kind of learning disorder or dyslexia.

[@rizahawkeyepierce1380]

@@AlexaFaiekids start learning to recognize and write letters at 4 or 5 in the US, but depending on how fast they pick it up, it may take a year or two to learn to actually read, and longer than that to remember how words are spelled if it doesn't match up with what they're hearing, so I wouldn't be surprised to see spelling mistakes from kids that age.

[@deltatango6793]

I taught art & engineering in China summer 2019, and while I did learn some Mandarin before I went, Chinese college students studying English were assigned to each teacher. They loved taking down notable words we used and asking about them and learning how to use them. One day, I told an 8 year old boy he was being “so dramatic”, and I noticed the college student repeat the word to himself a few times and then start typing in his phone. I peeked over his shoulder and he was looking up “Germanic”. I cleared that up right away! Another word they loved was “drenched”, when we would describe how we felt in the humidity and heat! Another J sound on that one! Also, not sure if it’s related, I had a lisp as a kid and I definitely don’t say shtreet. I say street. I’m in North Jersey (NJ, USA).

[@harriet.z]

Haha! I’m Chinese & brought up there until university age. We students really CLING ON to the words we are taught. It’s so hard to just somehow KNOW a word & its 10 other synonyms out of the blue. If a teacher taught me “oh when ur soaking wet, it’s called drenched” you bet I will only ever use that word. X)

[@deltatango6793]

@@harriet.z hahahaha it was really an incredible experience and made me even more aware of what I say and how I say it than I already am.. my mom is a Polish immigrant and my dad is not nor speaks Polish, so I’ve always been very aware of my speaking decisions.

[@theblackswordsman9951]

What a bright 8 year old, to know that English is a Germanic language.

[@davidkantor7978]

Your story reminded me… When my son was young he told me about a scary movie that he saw: “Drastic Park”.

[@deltatango6793]

@@davidkantor7978 😂😅🤣 yep! Sounds right to me! 👂🏼

[@daniellane8517]

Thanks for this interesting video. I grew up in New Jersey, USA, in the 80s, and I had a few schoolmates who regularly said "chwelve" and "chwenny" for 12 and 20. I suspect that these two pronunciations are the very same phenomenon as you present here of post-alveolar tongue placement. It always struck me as a strange phonetic, but now it makes sense!

[@gregtaylor9806]

Literally never realized that I turned ‘D-R’ words into ‘J’ sounds 😂 made me laugh so hard at myself. Thank you, this is amazing.

[@drew037]

omg thank you!! i tried to convince my first year linguistics professor of this phenomenon after we were asked to transcribe "tree" on a test and i sat there agonizing over how to best represent what i say using only the broad transcription we'd learned at the time hahaha. she wasn't convinced/must have thought i was exaggerating that that was my natural pronunciation of such words. but i remained sure and then started noticing more and more when people do this "train changing" and "drum majoring" -- love the terms btw :). hadn't really picked up on street shopping before this video! always so cool to have new phenomena pointed out, will definitely be listening for that now. i love all the real-life clips you included, especially with "sri lanka" which i'd never previously thought about either :) thanks for this, what a fun journey back to my undergrad days as a ling major!!

[@prim16]

I'm 26 years old and a native speaker from New Jersey, and I indeed do every single phenomenon described here, without having realized it. That includes shchreet shopping 😄 I'll be taking your survey as a thanks for enlightening me on this assimilation pattern and deepening my understanding of it

[@darthszarych5588]

I'm also a native english speaker from New Jersey and I do all of these things too! But one wierd thing is that sometimes I talk kind of funny because I'm autistic, but most people think it's just a foreign accent and I get people asking me where im from all the time. A lot of people say it sounds midwestern, but I've lived in NJ my whole life!

[@soulfire2588]

I’m also a native speaker from NJ and don’t do any of this lol. In fact, ‘shtrong’ always irritated me when I was younger.

[@Deport_All_nonWhites]

Are you SubSaharan?

[@mortimer_22]

I was always puzzled by how some Canadian hockey commentators pronounce "last year" as "lahsh-cheer" or "lahš-čeer". This video helped a lot. Greetings from the place that gave the world hatcheks :)

[@EvincarOfAutumn]

Ooh, that’s a great example. The yod sound is influencing nearby consonants even across a word boundary: /læst jiːr/ → /læʃtʃ(j)iːr/. I wonder how “last year” and “lash cheer” compare to “lashed sheer” for these speakers-could be a source of some fun tongue-twisters, anyway. These sounds don’t seem to interact so much in accents (like mine and General American) where the /t/ sound at the end of a syllable is unreleased and/or glottal (about [ɫæst̚ˀ jɪɹ] for me).

[@mulhollandkitty]

I thought the lash cheer was a Washington State thing. It's so common here! Great example!

[@RamalRama]

I'm not a native English speaker but I've been noticing that these two words together "this year" are commonly pronounced "dishear". Thank you for videos, they're very useful!

[@WGGplant]

yeah. its very common for native speakers to reduce the voiced "th" sound in fluent speach. clothes - "close" nothing - "nufin" / "nufing" this - "dis" we're less likely to reduce unvoiced 'th' sounds as they already take less effort to say. "with", "then", " myth", etc. roll out a lot smoother than words with voiced 'th'

[@larsswig912]

​@@WGGplant isn't the th in nothing unvoiced?

[@WGGplant]

@@larsswig912 yeah u right.

[@skincarejerk6040]

@Lars Wig it probably depends on the dialect I live in the Western us and I pretty much always enunciate the “th.” If anything I drop the -g in informal contexts (eg, “I’ve got nuthin” or “nuthin much.”)

[@dingo137]

​@@WGGplantI'd say that's very accent dependent. There are certainly some accents that pronounce th like f, but most consistently distinguish them.

[@TheTuneProject]

I’d be interested to hear you speak about a phenomenon I’ve noticed among my fellow American English speakers, where people seem to be replacing words ending in “-ing” with “-een”. For example “feeling” becomes “feeleen”, “sitting” becomes “siteen”, and “wrecking” becomes “wreckeen”. I’ve noticed the “g” drop more often in recent years, and there are a few actors, KZbinrs, and people I’ve encountered who speak this way. Curious to learn your take!

[@PeterCamberwick]

Yeah, I notice that in Family Guy. The Actor who plays Joe does it for a start. "Peter, I don't know where you got that thing, but I'm impoundeen it!".

[@captainroberts6318]

I've noticed most people I talk to drop the g, though it usually ends up like -in or -en. Like "I was sittin there" or "he's runnin fast." It seems to be really commonly reflected in how a lot of people text or type as well, particularly younger people

[@TheEternalVortex42]

The "g" isn't pronounced separately, in English "ng" is the written symbol for the sound "ŋ" which is like a nasal n (also found in "nk" or "nc" words like bank or rink or zinc)

[@MaoRatto]

It's weird that you written -een, instead of IPA or as in (but short )

[@fishwax6371]

The G-dropping is a time-honored tradition, even with upper-class accents. Ridin', huntin' an' fishin', for example. But "een"? I don't hear that very often. I think Johnny Carson was the only one I knew of that regularly spoke that way.

[@learnenglishropes]

Dr Lindsey, thank you for your channel! I'm an English teacher from Moscow and currently writing my BA Thesis on Modern RP accent. Your book English after RP has been of great help so far. In Russian there is the same process that changes /sč/ to /šč/ and then to /šš/ which finally gets reduced to /š/. č in Russian is always palatalized, so š in this context gets palatalized as well. That's why the word written as "schitat" is pronounced as /∫jitat/.

[@notwithouttext]

in various languages, "k" evolves into "ch", EXCEPT that "sk" evolves into "sh". maybe this is the case?

[@anthonypetty9288]

I've only just discovered your videos within the last week. As a primary school teacher, it is really making me examine my own pronunciation and that of my students more closely. Thank you for opening my eyes further.

[@metalxhead]

I think you updated the video description in light of Hank's cancer announcement and chemotherapy. That's so sweet and thoughtful. What a nice touch to update a video from 7 months ago. I agree-best wishes to Hank at this time.

[@thelexicon7294]

I never really paid attention to this phenomenon until my friend casually pointed out that I do it "in that standard southern way." I was taken aback not only by the realization that others don't say "shtreet" but also by her suggestion that it's a southern thing. I'm in Cali which I wouldn't consider to be that kind of "South" - but I did go to elementary school in Louisiana. I would absolutely love some sort of a map breakdown of which English accents include this and which don't. We've had a similar debate over glottal stops and the way I say "moun'ain," "impor'ant" and "cer'ain" where she will say "mountain," "important" and "certain" - also a phenomenon that I'd love to see broken down by accent.

[@vega1349]

I noticed this when I did the survey! I pronounced both “Tightrope” and “night-[something]” with glottal stops in the middle instead of ts. I’m from AZ, might be a southwest thing?

[@ConLLee]

I was born in Northern California and moved to the treasure valley of Idaho when I was 7. I definitely have the impor’nt, cer’ain, moun’ian, thing. Never really realized it was a thing until now

[@CaseyWatchin]

I live in North Carolina and my extended family is from Georgia. None of us say "shtreet" but we all say "mountain". We are white and I've noticed that some of my friends who are black say "shtreet" so I'm wondering if that is also a cultural difference in the US.

[@00jyjsarang]

​@@CaseyWatchin Also from NC and I say street and mountain. Like they're spelled.

[@kodredcud]

Midwest (Ohio) here and I inadvertently remove the "T" as well

[@nil2k]

As a native speaker I'm fascinated by these details that I've never even noticed until pointed out in Geoff's videos.

[@trigonzobob]

Native speaker here. Took the survey and answered t/s/d to most. Felt weird to try to say the words with ch/sh/j - almost like I was drunk :). The s/sh swap sounded more "natural" but that's likely because of my German heritage and the fact that as I was growing up, many in my grandparents community spoke German.

[@leigh_cl6315]

I have an aussie accent and I answered the opposite for most I guess that makes sense lmao

[@smarter_in_5_mins]

In my native language (Czech) only people with a specific kind of lisp do this or when people talk to babies. But this baby talk always looks and sounds ridiculously. So, I sometimes must laugh at English speakers with overly pronounced shtr as it reminds the baby talk here too much🙂

[@pleasegoawaydude]

@@smarter_in_5_mins Well, that's... rude.

[@smarter_in_5_mins]

@@pleasegoawaydude What about it is exactly rude? That I was frank about how I perceive the shtr? I can't help; it is as it is. You may laugh at my English, and I cannot do anything about it. I laugh (internally) at overly pronounced shtr. In fact, I am often so distracted by it that I close the video. On the other hand, I have not named any person. Regarding cultural differences, I would recommend you some videos about Czech humor, but you could perceive it as too offensive 🙂 Anyway, try to search for "Expats Think THIS About Czech Humor"; this will give you an idea.

[@sheriffofsocktown1986]

This is really cool! I’ve noticed some people online, on tumblr/twitter for example, use “inch resting” as a “quirky” way of saying interesting. Now I know where it comes from!

[@Felipe-eb4zm]

I find it quite interesting that the exact same effect happens in some variants of Brazilian Portuguese, where "ti" and "di" are pronounced "t͡ʃi" and "d͡ʒi" instead.

[@MichaelTavares]

As a European Portuguese speaker, those are the some of the main distinctive features of your version of the language.

[@markbr5898]

I believe that in Brazilian Portuguese these occur only before an "i", as you say, but certainly not before "r".

[@JT-2312]

That's different, more akin to yod coalescence in English, where tune and dune are pronounced not as /tju:n/ and /dju:n/ but as /ʧuːn/ and /ʤuːn/, therefore making June and dune (and Jew and dew) homophones. That's pretty standard in many accents in the UK, though it is allophonic, and not a full merger yet.

[@Magmagan]

Quantidade ou quantchidadche?

[@weirdlyspecific302]

@@JT-2312 I speak BP natively. I think you’re completely right.

[@DomenicoSaretto]

As a native Italian, I’m often baffled by so many different pronunciations of the English language. This excellent video made things clearer to me. P.S. A correct pronunciation of the Italian language requires a strong “R”. As a matter of fact, some Italians pronounce “R” like English natives; we define that “erre moscia”, “feeble r”. That’s me: to me, the English “R” is more natural than the Italian).

[@Zimisce85]

But usually we consider the French "r" to be the typical "erre moscia". The sounds are very close but I am sure there must be a linguistic distinction between French and English "r" sound.

[@jdmichal]

@@Zimisce85 French R is typically /ʁ/, which is a voiced uvular fricative. It's the voiced version of /χ/, which is the sound in Scottish *loch*. Some German dialects use this R also. AFAIK, Italian uses the tapped and trilled R (/ɾ/ and /r/, respectively) mentioned in the video.

[@indridcold8433]

As a non native user of English, I have a hard time understanding why the words, "telephone," and, "pharmacy," have no F in them. In French and Spanish, those two words do have a letter F in them. Also, why is it that a teacher taught. But a preacher has not praught?

[@tomaszgarbino2774]

@@indridcold8433 In Spanish - yes, but in French they're also spelled with a "ph". And this spelling it due to their etymology (both words come from Greek).

[@HANSMKAMP]

I have seen Italians that use the uvular r (in IPA it is written as [ʁ] (like in German and French). Such an r ([ʁ]) in Russian is never accepted. In Russian this is called a картавость (kartavost'), a speech impediment. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4vTi6N9i5dpeLc

[@cornbreadflapjacks]

I was recommended this video randomly and I found it so interesting! I had a very brief stint majoring in speech pathology and would have kept going if I was mature enough at the time. My grandma (originally from Belgium) and my uncle (her son) always put a heavy emphasis on enunciating so I thought I was good at that, but after taking the survey I found I drop a few sounds here and there like in outrage (I say ow rage) and night rate (nigh rate). I'm a US native who grew up in western Kentucky. I am subscribing to your channel and hope I get to participate in a future survey!

[@user__214]

Americans don't really drop T's entirely. When you say "outrage" you probably do an "unreleased T" or a glottal stop. Meaning, you stop the air in a way that registers to native ears as a "T" sound, though it is different from the "T" in "tin" where the air is released. Most Americans do this at the ends of syllables, like when you say "Right?" to somebody, you don't release the air after the "T". But that's different from just saying "Rai?"

[@Cora.T]

I find I can't do the t > ch or d > j. It's probably because I'm used to the quick alveolar to post alveolar movement. Dutch words like trein ( train ), drop ( type of candy ), or straat ( street ) all have this movement. Sri Lanka in Dutch also makes this movement, however when I say it in "English" it sort of becomes Sgri Lanka

[@EvanC881]

I am an elementary school teacher, and I have noticed that I've developed what I call my "phonics accent". We always tell our students to "sound out" their words but it is frustrating for them (and us!) when that doesn't work because of regional accents that don't mesh well with basic phonics rules we are teaching them. I end up pronouncing every word "as written" as much as possible while remaining reasonably understandable. Sometimes I wonder if the letters could change for us instead of us changing for the letters 😅

[@davidrogers8030]

I think it's a shame pronunciation is more likely to change to fit spelling than vice versa.

[@locsoluv94]

The letters and spelling has always been changing with pronunciation. What we call an "apron" used to be called a "napron." The N used to be a part of the noun "napron" and not the article "an." But because "a napron" and "an apron" are pronounced the same, the N ended up migrating to the article when written down. Written language is but a tool that we use. We made up all these letters and words. We all learn how to listen and speak a language before we learn to read and write it. So the only thing stopping us from changing the language to fit our needs is this arbitrary desire to "conserve" something that has been changing since it started.

[@davidrogers8030]

@@locsoluv94 Not so much since Johannes Gutenberg. Excellent ickname by the way.

[@davidrogers8030]

@David Montgomery You're right that regional accents are becoming less distinct and more comprehensible.

[@AlexaFaie]

@@locsoluv94 I was reading by the age of 2 and there are still words to this day that I have only ever seen written down and haven't heard others say so it always seems to get a laugh when I use them around someone who knows the word from having heard it first. They're usually the longer words which are used in very specific scenarios rather than more everyday vocabulary. Part of that comes from my Mum telling me to read the dictionary and thesaurus (most boring dinosaur by far) when I was bored as a kid. Never made me feel less bored (having a brain that doesn't produce adequate dopamine will do that to you), but I certainly learned a lot of words. But I'm learning more and more that I had a bit of a weird experience growing up. It didn't seem that way at the time, particularly when my brother was walking by 7 months so I didn't really know what else to expect (didn't know anyone else from a baby). Yes his legs ended up a bit bowed from walking that early. No we couldn't stop him, he would undo the straps and climb out of the pushchair, it was a nightmare. He could also undo any of the childproof locks without the keys you were meant to use and we still have no idea how he did it.

[@unpiccolocuore]

Thank you for this video and many others I've just watched in two weeks. I, as a lover of languages, unprofessionally study linguistics and phonetics about four year and you entered my life like a saver. I've just discovered your channel this month and it was ridiculously surprising for me to find such valuable knowledge in KZbin with everything about which I could've asked and imagined. I learn new things with every one of your videos and can confirm some of my thoughts thanks to them, though I am very upset I cannot afford your book due to the devaluation of our currency and my location. I hope I can read it one day. Nevertheless, I thank you for all of your contents you make ready for us, it is priceless for me both to have these videos and people's comments which make this videos even more full of knowledge.

[@paulcarlachapman628]

Native speaker, 72 years old. My t, d, str, etc. are crisp with no hint of the sounds you talk about. Neither do my daughters (in their 40s) talk this way. I hear people use it from time to time but didn't realize it's so widespread. Very interesting. Thank you.

[@hya2in8]

where are you from? if I may ask

[@paulcarlachapman628]

I was born in Alabama and grew up there, but we have been in Northeast Texas since the end of 1981. I think the first time my attention was drawn to the oral phenomena you explain was in novels where Irish speakers used it. After your video I will be on the lookout for it.

[@paulcarlachapman628]

I am replying again, this time with egg on my face. I think maybe I do sometimes speak less crisply than I first imagined. I don't think I say "shtrength", but perhaps not so clearly as I should. I am going to listen to myself for a while and see exactly what I do. Thank you for your informative videos.

[@hya2in8]

@@paulcarlachapman628 I'm not Mr. Lindsay haha

[@paulcarlachapman628]

@@hya2in8 Whoops! Okay, lol.

[@skirtedgalleons]

Interesting! I noticed on your quiz that I revert to a different more precise pronunciation for words I read that are not ones I routinely use but understand (i.e., British English versus American terms).

[@zagobelim]

Your videos are absolutely amazing! Thank you very much for making these topics so accessible to us all!

[@DrGeoffLindsey]

Thanks for the support André

[@ek-nz]

My partner’s grandparents were actors, so he grew up not allowed to turn picture into pitcher. He puts a lot of effort into saying pict-ture. He’s in his late 50s, kiwi. The rest of us just say pitcher (schwa ending, drop the r). Edit: might be worth pointing out that neither of us does extreme shtreet shopping, though we both do jrum majoring and chrain changing because it would sound very odd not to. He gets mad at Kathryn Ryan on the radio for what he calls “chewing her words”.

[@NoiseDay]

Picture to pitcher is funny because I say picshure

[@jimthain8777]

@@NoiseDay if you're paying attention, you'll notice that the quality of the vowel before it changes when you drop that final r. Generally in cases like this it lengthens.

[@stillmagic714]

Meanwhile, my Grandpa could fit about three r's into "wash." Haha

[@karlhendrikse]

When you say "the rest of us" do you mean kiwis? We most assuredly do not all say "pitcher". I would assert the vast majority of us say "piksha".

[@ek-nz]

@@karlhendrikse Hmm, interesting. Now that you mention it I have definitely heard that pronunciation, but I still think most people around me say pitcher. I wonder where the divide is. Is it social or geographical perhaps? I’m in the deep south.

[@theoriginaledi]

Interesting! I first noticed this phenomenon many years ago when I was teaching first grade and early spellers would very frequently identify the first letter in words like "drum" as J. The first time it happened I was momentarily confused about how on earth they were getting that and, though it only took a moment's thought to realize what they were doing, I've been confused ever since about WHY it happens. I later noticed my young nephew saying "chrain" and "chrick" and I was concerned that it was the beginnings of a speech impediment. I never dreamed it was the exact same phenomenon! In any case, it's extremely interesting to understand at last why this happens!

[@veritatemamate]

I studied some linguistics in college, but didn't encounter this until later, as a parent. When my kids were preschoolers, they began to argue with me during word games that 'dragon' and 'driving' began with /j/.

[@Pteromandias]

I'd have to really make an effort, but I don't know how you could pronounce train without the ch- sound. In fact I always considered it a phonetic rule that -r after some letters changes the sound of the letter. dr- becomes jr-, tr- becomes chr- specifically. The letter a before r makes a short a into an ahh sound: at becomes art.

[@Pteromandias]

Ok, I must have stumbled on some secret KZbin code for strikethrough. Let's see. -start of strikethrough text- end of strikethrough.

[@JasminMiettunen]

Do you have examples of J words that would illustrate how they thought the word drum sounds like? I'm not a native speaker, and pronounce the word with a very clear D, so I'm curious how some native speakers pronounce it :)

[@veritatemamate]

@@JasminMiettunen I don't think there are any true "jr" words in English. The closest might be words like "journey" or "jury." Even those are different though. In my region, we don't pronounce the ou or the u in those two examples, but we do pronounce the "r" sound longer to produce a separate syllable. "jrum" on the other hand only has one syllable, of which the short u sound is the vowel.

[@thamesking]

I'm an ESOL teacher and only this week discovered in real time with my students that we don't say 'try' or 'train' but 'chry' and 'chrain' due the British 'r'. This is why learners of English sound strange when they pronounce the t correctly followed by a rolled r, which native speakers don't do. To emphasise to my Ukrainian students what we actually say I wrote 'try' on the board in Cyrillic - 'чраі'. Thanks Dr Geoff for getting there before me and explaining it so well!

[@embersassembling939]

As a Sri Lankan who's a huge fan of Hank Green, this video felt made for me.

[@flybeep1661]

Lol whut?? This is squarly oriented towards native English speakers and here you are with "huge fan of Hank Green" haha.

[@chavezharding7820]

I'm from Barbados and typically what we do when speaking in our creole is that we'd go completely post-alveolar with words that start with thr. So instead of "through" we'd say "chrough" which would be identical to "true" or instead of "three" we'd say "chree" or "tree" but the latter is often discouraged from a young age. I find this fascinating because I've never seen this pronounciation outside of the Caribbean.

[@comeradecoyote]

When Gullah & Creole were more common in the American south, you’d hear it there too, but not as much these days. Some of it has crossed into African American dialects, and that is probably where it’s made it’s way into other parts of common American pronunciation.

[@jenster29]

That's how Irish people speak. Tree, tru, etc. It's because there is no TH sound in the Irish language and this passes over into the English dialect. Considering the large numbers forcibly moved to Barbados from Ireland, it would make sense there is an influence in your dialect.

[@Mariemgt123]

​@@jenster29 I was observing the same thing. This video is a good example of the influence of the Irish accent in Montserrat. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJfMoWxsoJaWe5I

[@jenster29]

@@Mariemgt123 haha yeah they sound like they come straight out of Cork hahah

[@Dragowolf_Rising]

I'm from the "Kentuckiana" area in the US and shtrong and shtreet were almost jarring outside of a mock drunken slur. The others were all common enough to my ears. There tends to be a lot of variety in this region and personally I say many of those words both ways depending on the speed with which I'm speaking or even who I'm speaking to. I subconsciously adopt pieces of other people's speach patterns while in conversation with them, but it usually wears off.

[@DrGeoffLindsey]

If you have 5 mins, please do the survey!

[@kaciewolverton2692]

Interesting. I'm from the Midwest and do all of them. Never noticed I was changing anything either lol

[@tashpinktheartist]

I’m from Ohio (Dayton) and I was thrown off by the shtrong And shtreet etc. i say my s and t almost always- except sometimes I DROP the t completely like in Dayton - I will pronounce it Day-in if I’m relaxed and not minding my pronunciations. Anyway, I was raised to think that not articulating words as correctly as possible signified laziness. Lol that’s a Midwest upbringing for you. Anyway- I completed the questionnaire. Thank you for the video

[@logand488]

im from NC in a very southern accented area and i definitely use the “shtreet” and “shtrong” !! haha

[@IDontSuckAtLifeakaJanis3975]

Dropping T's as in Dayton. I sometimes watch walking channels such as ActionKid who is from NYC... I don't know if it was him or others like or with him saying mittens and I realized most people I'm around drop the t's in words such as mittens, kittens, etc. Mittens~MIH´-inz

[@Blaineworld]

i am glad i found videos like this. when i was a small child i thought some people just spoke “incorrectly” because they were “dumb,” but now that i actually know how accents work i think it’s cool instead.

[@illdie314]

Relatable!

[@fugithegreat]

This is really interesting! As a teacher of English as a foreign language, this is actually really helpful and I think it will impact how I teach pronunciation from here on out. I'll be following the channel from here on out! Also, I took the survey and find it interesting to see which situations I do the jrum and chrain, and where I don't.

[@WanderynMist]

As a native English speaker, I have often had other, older English speakers not understand me when I say "shrong". I keep trying to pronounce it more clearly but I never can. I figured it was a dialect difference so thank you for explaining it!

[@jenniferlindemann7192]

I've been learning German, and as a native (American) English speaker I've been struggling to pronounce the German 'r' sound. This video has helped me so much to understand where I've been going wrong. Danke!

[@meerkatnip892]

As a native German speaker... isn't the German r even further back in the mouth than the English r? Not like the examples given here, Spanish r etc. in the front. Wishing you luck, German r would give me a sore throat if it wasn't my mother tongue

[@Nein01]

This video won't help you with pronouncing the German r. To make the German r sound, it's almost like a cat hissing sound but farther back on the throat. They don't touch the roof of the mouth at all like in Spanish and other Latin languages.

[@jenniferlindemann7192]

Looks like the struggle continues. I will keep researching and trying to find that sound. Thank you both for the insight!

[@jojomillward675]

Yorkshire speaking lass here 👋🏽Anyone else reading the words out loud to see how you make sounds? This is fascinating.

[@socxan]

Growing up in the American south, I had a relatively light southern accent (in comparison to my family: a midwestern friend insisted that my mother was literally incomprehensible to him), and when I went to college in New England I tried to eliminate it. My two tells: the phenomenon you discuss here (“shtreet”), and a tendency to replace a short ‘e’ with a short ‘i’. I didn’t realize I was doing either of these until they were pointed out to me.

[@redpepper74]

I live in the Midwestern suburbs and I’ve always said “chrain” and “jrain”, so this makes me wonder who is doing this where, and how old they are

[@TheAbandonedAccount7]

I'm honestly curious now to know how you're "meant" to pronounce street. If this guy is claiming these are wrong, then ur saying it's, suh-treet and tuh-rain? Like, no one speaks like that tho lol. So can it even be considered proper still in 2022?

[@thegreatestfallout1794]

@@TheAbandonedAccount7 You just have to move your tongue position, as discussed in the video. Instead of making the sound in the center top of your mouth, you make it just behind your teeth. It removes the soft 'ch' you make when doing the sound from the center

[@jdmichal]

@@TheAbandonedAccount7 You do not need to make train a two syllable word to say it without a /tʃ/. It's just "train" instead of "chrain". I wish I could easily post a voice recording of myself doing both.

[@peachykeen7634]

@@TheAbandonedAccount7 I think it’s supposed to be “stir-reet” but blended... I say “stir” (not shtir) but I also say shtreet so i dunno 🤷🏽‍♀️

[@darius_defiant]

I was somewhat self conscious of my "slurring" of some words, though I pronounce others fine. This made me feel a lot more normal haha. I didn't realize how common it is to speak like this.

[@GabeLucario]

I'm 21 (born 2001) and I pronounce everything *without* the post-alveolar-isation. Even when speaking fast, my natural pronunciation is just as it's written: TRain, rather than CHRain. I also find it easy to pronounce Sri Lanka and Srebrenica with the SR (as opposed to SHR). Though I hear SHR and CHR quite a lot out and about among others my age

[@Xnoob545]

>21 >Born 2001 Oh good

[@GabeLucario]

@@Xnoob545 who knows - people might read this in the future

[@VoIcanoman]

@@Xnoob545 Indeed. Otherwise, John Connor's life is in terrible danger.

[@KatharineOsborne]

@@GabeLucario I think it’s more shock that people born in 2001 are full adults communicating on the internet (especially given 2001 is one of those cultural watershed years that divide our lives, like 2020 will be for you, and 1963 for my mom. It’s like, how can there be an adult walking around who didn’t share the zeitgeist of 9/11?). I hope no disrespect was intended by the original replier.

[@GabeLucario]

@@KatharineOsborne Ah yeah fair enough. I did manage to see 9/11 on TV live but ofc I don't remember it lol. Plus I'm British so it's not such a big event in our own culture (ofc still massive but we don't have the TSA for example)

[@jesseidfrank]

I'm loving your videos! So glad the algorithm decided to show me your channel.

[@heatherduke7703]

The funny thing about str turning into shtr is that this is a new shift happening in the standard American accent. I noticed it when I was teaching high school choir in 2014 in West Virginia and I could not get my kids to sing ‘str’ no matter what I tried. At first I thought it was some kind of accent, Appalachian mountain speak. But then I started hearing it all over, even in broadcasting. It definitely skews toward younger people (although I’m 37, and I had never noticed it in my cohort going through school in Northern Virginia)

[@Coloneljesus]

As a non-native, it's fantastic to finally not only have confirmed what I think I hear sometimes, but to also have it explained how it works and where it comes from! Keep these videos coming!

[@simonimbrogno2887]

I remember back in university getting in an argument with a linguistics professor over this. They were insisting that another students transcription of their own speech was incorrect despite her VERY obviously pronouncing it with a /tʃ/ and the rest of the students looking very confused at the prof's transcription.

[@sheltr9735]

Hello Simon, I have a question for you Your first sentence refers to a professor But your second sentence says "they were" So, there's a numeric inconsistency I presume it was done knowingly/intentionally, i.e. it wasn't just a random error Q: Did you do that to avoid using "he/her"? If so, I understand the motivation But it leads to confusing communication (from my perspective) Thank you

[@lasseheller9863]

@@sheltr9735 Hello, I am not the author of the original comment but just to let you know: The singular they has a very long history in the english language and is commonly used! That means you should probably prepare yourself to hear a whole lot more of it in your experience with other english speakers.

[@sheltr9735]

@@lasseheller9863 Ha! I'm already an old guy, but even I don't remember that! Yes, I believe you are correct, there will be more of it in my experience One of my pet peeves is ambiguous or confusing communication English (and human language, in general) already has so many potential subtle pitfalls that can undermine the transfer of information, from speaker to listener / reader The addition of an obvious "disconnect" only makes the listener's task more difficult I really dislike it Grrrrrrrr LOL Thx, have a great day

[@ACAB.forcutie]

@@sheltr9735 this is why I always use y'all, which sounds very strange in my very non Southern "Cali girl" accent 🤣 at least the "they" numerical issue is present in almost all languages, but only English doesn't have a second person plural. I think all languages should have a gender neutral singular term. Yes, "they" can be used for that, but you're right, it is confusing. I think nonbinary people deserve their own term.

[@martinhawes5647]

@@sheltr9735 I don’t think it’s confusing since the professor was the only object introduced at that point, so they must obviously refer to the professor.

[@Nintendrew]

Fascinating!

[@katara9]

Recently, I was considering my accent because I was a late-bloomer when it came to getting some pronounciations correct. For example three would become tree. Because of being a late bloomer I felt my use of SH and CH was a sign that I had weaker pronounciation ability than those around me. I've mostly been around people older than me, who I hardly noticed having this. I'm glad to hear it's just an accent of natural language progression.

[@MsHojat]

Turdy tree and a turd. You'd have fit in Ireland

[@BeckyMesser]

It can also be a regional thing, My Dutch-Caribbean bf does this with unvoiced “th” sounds (think, Thursday, etc.). His are very aspirated. For me, from California, US, those SAME sounds for me become Ts with NO aspiration (like you’d hear in Spanish or Italian). Blame that on my region & on Spanish being my second language😂

[@nickh.8275]

Fun fact: this exact thing happens in the Bogotan accent in Spanish, just the other way around. You can easily identify the older generations when they pronounce “tr” like “ch”, which no longer happens with younger people. I think I’ve heard something similar in other parts of Latin America.

[@gianb3952]

But in this case is so much harder to pronounce the Spanish r isn't it? Does "Tren" sound like "Chren"? Never heard of this haha

[@luciaprommel7999]

Yes it does!! In parts of Bolivia too. Love that you point it out! “Voy a chabajar=trabajar”

[@RingsOfSolace]

Not a native but I've been speaking Spanish for a few years and I never noticed this. I have noticed that older people, regardless of where they're from, talk differently, with how they speak and what words they'll use sometimes.

[@Ingestedbanjo]

Thanks for tronicling this phenomenon! I pronounce things with "sh" a lot right now, but that's because I pulled a crown out of my front tooth while eating toffee the other day, and now I have a big gap in one of my incisors thanks to a cycling accident when I was a teenager.

[@noahthewolfking9428]

Im a german english learner who is super interested in listening carefully and uncovering the secrets of spoken language. Especially when it comes to american English. I have no idea why but I just love the sound of american English. And this video was what needed even though I didnt know I would needed it.

[@jasoncox7244]

This is really interesting, from my Appalachian English (~40 y.o.), I definitely do not do the the chrain or jrum. And I have absolutely no issue with making a proper sr sound either. It feels awkward in my mouth to use the substitution. Though I wonder if this is because I've done so much practice over the years training myself to speak American "Plain English" and codeswitch between that and my native dialect effortlessly. The "sr" is particularly interesting since I never thought about how it doesn't pop up in regular English, but in my dialect we often shorten things like "surround" to "s'round" with a definite vowel-free sr at the beginning. "Ceramic" does the same thing becoming "s'ramik" and others.

[@elisaastorino2881]

It might just be natural. I'm from western Pennsylvania, not far away at all, and I speak the same way you do. In fact, I don't hear the substitutions much at all around here.

[@mrs.manrique7411]

I think metropolis areas tend to fold back the t/d/s ‘s to the ch/j/sh sounds with r, whereas more traditionally insular areas that retained some earlier English (I’ve always learned that Appalachia is the closest we’ll ever hear how English colonialists might have spoken) keep those sounds. My history professors also tend to speak with the t/d/s sounds, as well as pronouncing the “h” in “what,” “when,” “where,” etc. When I was in first grade, I spelled “drive” as “jrive” on a spelling test. I was a stickler for getting a perfect score, and I remember beating myself up over it for a long time. Haha. I am from Southern California, border state + two major metropolis’.

[@betsyrobinson7314]

Probably my favourite example of shtreet shopping is the Northern French accent (it's literally known in France as the "ch'ti accent"), it's so pronounced that there have been entire films poking fun at the accent ("Bienvenue chez les ch'tis")

[@milonso650]

such a great movie!

[@meerkatnip892]

I don't know French but I know that movie. They tried to translate the accent into German for the dubbed version, using lots of 'sh' (or in German 'sch') but it obviously doesn't make so much sense. Translating movies where the accent plays a huge role is fascinating to me - so often it's just dropped completely.

[@timthewombat1]

Watching this video - as a German native speaker - and remembering all the moments while abroad, ordering DRinks and being instanlty exposed as the German dude. Not long into the year I realized, I always feel a warm, pronounciational embrace meeting scottish people and massively vibed with their whole alveolar/post-alveolar shabang!

[@HannyDart]

As a fellow german we should not be struggling with goint from st to sht tho ;)

[@gerardvanwilgen9917]

The standard orthography of Jamaican Patois shows such sound changes explicitely, for instance "chrii" (three), "chrang" (strong), "jringk" (drink) and "jrai" (dry).

[@sucail128]

this actually also gave me a little bit of foresight into Spanish pronunciation too. I live in California, so when I hear Spanish in public, it’s mostly Mexican/Mexican-American dialects and accents. On the other hand, my family is from Nicaragua, and their dialect and pronunciation is quite different. besides differences in vocab and grammar, the most notable thing about their accent is that they omit “S” sounds at the end of words and before consonants, and replace them with a subtle “H” sound instead. I think this might be the same phenomenon but taken one step further; it’s to avoiding having to move around your mouth so much. I’m only at an intermediate level of Spanish, but I find I can speak it a lot quicker and more fluidly when I mimic the accent of my relatives rather than the Mexican speakers I interact with on the street. maybe that’s why.

[@drewzalo]

Yes Spanish in LA is lazy

[@urinstein1864]

I've noticed the shtreet shopping and that one's pretty easy to see how it is more convenient to say. Never thought about chrain changing and jrum majoring though. Super interesting, thanks for the video.

[@setharnold9764]

I've heard the street shopping before and figured it was an individual speech impediment. Drum majoring and train changing are so ubiquitous that I've never even noticed them before. This is so fascinating.

[@TheAbandonedAccount7]

I find this to be BS. Does t everyone pronounce street with an sh sound? How else are you even supposed to say it? Now if they used a real example of this, like, when someone says "booshter" instead of booster, that, I can totally see what you're saying about being speech impediment. But saying shtreet is just a natural way to pronounce that word. So this video was hella confusing for people who have been speaking modern English for any amount of time.

[@setharnold9764]

@Brandon "shtreet" is unusual enough to me that it stands out -- I always thought it was a speech impediment when I heard it. Taking Geoff's quiz was great fun, some words sounded perfectly fine both ways and some words I couldn't pronounce both ways. I'm from the Pacific Northwest of the United States; where are you?

[@philipgrant7888]

@@TheAbandonedAccount7 For example, Dr Lindsey's pronunciation of "street" at 7:27 - to my ear that sounds clearly like a "s" and not like the examples of "shtreet" in the video. Not saying that "shtreet" is unnatural at all! But it varies among native speakers according to accent.

[@braziliantvhd2768]

Jarring to realize I've been using all these pronunciations for years without realizing it.

[@saisaipech]

I'm blown away by the "shtr" sound change! It's my first time encountering it and it is really much easier to pronounce than "str". I kinda remember korean and japanese in this sound change phenomenon. Both languages change the "s" sound into "sh" when it's followed by an "i" or a "y".

[@SchmulKrieger]

Happens also in English, a reason why you say sure as shoor, because originally is was siwer where the u sound changed the s to sh. Or as in issue or tissue, instead of tissyu and issyu.

[@TheAbandonedAccount7]

That's why everything has changed, and shtr is considered proper. As it's easier, makes more sense, more natural. People don't go around say stuh-reet lol that's ridiculous!

[@jdmichal]

@@SchmulKrieger "Sure" is pronounced with a "long u", which can be /ju/. Which is exactly how we say the letter's name, same pronunciation as "you". Now /j/ is interesting, because it's a semi vowel paired with /i/. And as noted by as previous commentor, /sj/ combinations tend to assimilate to /ʃj/. So altogether "sure" ends up as /ʃʲuɹ/.

[@jeff__w]

“Both languages change the ‘s’ sound into ‘sh’ when it's followed by an ‘i" or a ‘y’.” I had the same thought about Korean. I’m glad you mentioned it. I do wonder if it’s related to the alveolar-to-post-alveolar shift explained in this video or if it’s something else.

[@SchmulKrieger]

@@jeff__w this happens in so many languages, for example Polish and English in some cases, too.